Running

Mark Goldfarb enters Colfax Marathon with memories, righteous cause

Mark Goldfarb, training Thursday in Denver's Washington Park, is raising money for Water for People, a charity that benefits people in 10 developing countries around the world. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

When Mark Goldfarb's mother arrived at the hospital where he was recovering from an automobile accident that fractured seven vertebrae, left him with a severe concussion and killed two of his friends, a nurse told her:

"When he came in, none of us thought he was going to survive."

But he did survive that horrific accident in December 2011. Lucky to be alive and able to run normally now, he will do Sunday's Colfax Marathon to remember friends who died in the accident and raise money for Water for People, a Denver-based charity that provides clean, safe water for people in 10 developing countries around the world.

Goldfarb saw the need while on a Peace Corps assignment in the African country of Mozambique.

"They're drinking out of these dirty sources, and it's killing them," said Goldfarb, 26. "They're dying from dysentery on a daily basis."

Mozambique is where he was in the accident that left him with survivor's guilt.

After spending a day at the beach, Goldfarb and four other Peace Corps volunteers accepted a ride back to the site where he was stationed. What they didn't realize until they got into the minivan was that the driver had been drinking. They didn't notice the empty beer bottles until it was too late.

Advertisement

Soon they were hurtling down the road at insane speeds. Goldfarb remembers none of this, because of amnesia that came with his head injury, but a friend who survived the accident said he saw the speedometer hit 160 kilometers per hour — 99 mph. Someone asked the driver to slow down, which he did briefly, but then he sped up again and rolled the minivan at 80 to 85 mph.

Two women — Lena Jenison of Hartland, Wis., and Alden Landis of Yarrow Point, Wash. — were killed. Goldfarb was thrown from the vehicle. After X-rays detected the broken vertebrae — fortunately they burst outward rather than inward, which would have left him a paraplegic — he was flown to a hospital in South Africa where he spent three weeks and underwent a spinal fusion.

He returned to his home in Lexington, Ky., but soon moved to Denver to recuperate with a sister who lives here. Seven months after the accident, he started working out and could barely run half a mile without extreme pain. He worked his way up to a half marathon last spring, averaging 7:45 a mile for 13.1 miles, and now he's ready for his first marathon.

It's not for him, though.

"Ever since I woke up in that hospital, and the loss of my two friends, I was like: 'I can't make this right. There's no way you could ever make anything like that right. It's life and it happens. But what can I do to remember them and allow other people to know about them and think about them?' "

There's also Water for People. Goldfarb's goal was to raise $100,000. That proved to be overly optimistic — he has $17,625 pledged — but he's not giving up on the goal.

"I've decided I'm just going to do this yearly until I reach that goal, because I set it," Goldfarb said. "Maybe it takes me 10 marathons. I hope it doesn't."

John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer

Missy Franklin, Jenny Simpson, Adeline Gray and three other Colorado women could be big players at the 2016 Rio OlympicsWhen people ask Missy Franklin for her thoughts about the Summer Olympics that will begin a year from Wednesday in Rio de Janeiro, she hangs a warning label on her answer.